98 Facts About Dell

Dell is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services and is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies.

Dell sells personal computers, servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals, HDTVs, cameras, printers, and electronics built by other manufacturers.

Dell is known for how it manages its supply chain and electronic commerce.

Dell was a pure hardware vendor until 2009 when it acquired Perot Systems.

Dell has expanded storage and networking systems, now aiming to expand from offering computers only to delivering a range of technology for enterprise customers.

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Dell is ranked 31st on the Fortune 500 list in 2022, up from 76th in 2021.

In 2015, Dell acquired the enterprise technology firm EMC Corporation.

Dell EMC sells data storage, information security, virtualization, analytics, and cloud computing.

Michael Dell founded Dell Computer Corporation, doing business as PC's Limited, in 1984 while a student at the University of Texas at Austin.

Michael Dell started trading in the belief that by selling personal computer systems directly to customers, PC's Limited could better understand customers' needs and provide the most effective computing solutions to meet those needs.

Michael Dell dropped out of college upon completion of his freshman year at the University of Texas at Austin in order to focus full-time on his fledgling business, after getting about $1, 000 in expansion-capital from his family.

Dell grossed more than $73 million in its first year of trading.

Dell set up its first international operations in Britain; eleven more followed within the next four years.

In 1989, Dell Computer set up its first on-site service programs in order to compensate for the lack of local retailers prepared to act as service centers.

In 1990, Dell Computer tried selling its products indirectly through warehouse clubs and computer superstores, but met with little success, and the company re-focused on its more successful direct-to-consumer sales model.

In 1993, to complement its own direct sales channel, Dell planned to sell PCs at big-box retail outlets such as Wal-Mart, which would have brought in an additional $125 million in annual revenue.

Bain consultant Kevin Rollins persuaded Michael Dell to pull out of these deals, believing they would be money losers in the long run.

Originally, Dell did not emphasize the consumer market, due to the higher costs and low profit margins in selling to individuals and households; this changed when the company's Internet site took off in 1996 and 1997.

Dell found an opportunity among PC-savvy individuals who liked the convenience of buying direct, customizing their PC to their means, and having it delivered in days.

In early 1997, Dell created an internal sales and marketing group dedicated to serving the home market and introduced a product line designed especially for individual users.

From 1997 to 2004, Dell steadily grew and it gained market share from competitors even during industry slumps.

Dell surpassed Compaq to become the largest PC manufacturer in 1999.

In 2002, Dell expanded its product line to include televisions, handhelds, digital audio players, and printers.

Chairman and CEO Michael Dell had repeatedly blocked President and COO Kevin Rollins's attempt to lessen the company's heavy dependency on PCs, which Rollins wanted to fix by acquiring EMC Corporation; a move that would eventually occur over 12 years later.

Under Rollins, Dell purchased the computer hardware manufacturer Alienware in 2006.

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Dell responded by experimenting with mall kiosks, plus quasi-retail stores in Texas and New York.

Dell had a reputation as a company that relied upon supply chain efficiencies to sell established technologies at low prices, instead of being an innovator.

Dell had done well with a horizontal organization that focused on PCs when the computing industry moved to horizontal mix-and-match layers in the 1980s, but by the mid-2000 the industry shifted to vertically integrated stacks to deliver an end-to-end IT product, and Dell lagged far behind competitors like Hewlett Packard and Oracle.

The original Dell model was known for high customer satisfaction when PCs sold for thousands but by the 2000s, the company could not justify that level of service when computers in the same line-up sold for hundreds.

Dell delayed filing financial reports for the third and fourth fiscal quarter of 2006, and several class-action lawsuits were filed.

Less than a year later, Dell planned to double its workforce to nearly 3, 000 workers add a new building.

Dell had announced the shutdown of its Edmonton, Alberta, office, losing 900 jobs.

Dell closed plants that produced desktop computers for the North American market, including the Mort Topfer Manufacturing Center in Austin, Texas and Lebanon, Tennessee (opened in 1999) in 2008 and early 2009, respectively.

On January 8, 2009, Dell announced the closure of its manufacturing plant in Limerick, Ireland, with the loss of 1, 900 jobs and the transfer of production to its plant in Lodz in Poland.

The Dell Streak was a failure commercially and critically due to its outdated OS, numerous bugs, and low resolution screen.

Dell has responded by pushing higher-end PCs, such as the XPS line of notebooks, which do not compete with the Apple iPad and Kindle Fire tablets.

In December 2012, Dell suffered its first decline in holiday sales in five years, despite the introduction of Windows 8.

Dell remained the second-most profitable PC vendor, as it took 13 percent of operating profits in the PC industry during Q4 2012, behind Apple's Mac that took 45 percent, seven percent at Hewlett Packard, six percent at Lenovo and Asus, and one percent for Acer.

Dell attempted to offset its declining PC business, which still accounted for half of its revenue and generates steady cash flow, by expanding into the enterprise market with servers, networking, software, and services.

Dell managed some success in taking advantage of its high-touch direct sales heritage to establish close relationships and design solutions for clients.

On October 12, 2015, Dell Inc announced its intent to acquire EMC Corporation in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $67 billion, which has been considered the largest-ever acquisition in the technology sector.

Announcement came two years after Dell Inc returned to private ownership, claiming that it faced bleak prospects and would need several years out of the public eye to rebuild its business.

Key investors backing the deal besides Dell were Singapore's Temasek Holdings and Silver Lake Partners.

In July 2018, Dell announced intentions to become a publicly traded company again by paying $21.

In January 2021, Dell reported $94 billion in sales and $13 billion operating cash flow during 2020.

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When Dell acquired Alienware early in 2006, some Alienware systems had AMD chips.

On February 26, 2007, Dell announced that it had commenced a program to sell and distribute a range of computers with pre-installed Linux distributions as an alternative to Microsoft Windows.

However, the next day, Dell announced that its previous announcement related to certifying the hardware as ready to work with Novell SUSE Linux and that it had no plans to sell systems pre-installed with Linux in the near future.

On March 28, 2007, Dell announced that it would begin shipping some desktops and laptops with Linux pre-installed, although it did not specify which distribution of Linux or which hardware would lead.

On May 1, 2007, Dell announced it would ship the Ubuntu Linux distribution.

On June 27, 2007, Dell announced on its Direct2Dell blog that it planned to offer more pre-loaded systems.

At LinuxWorld 2007 Dell announced plans to provide Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop on selected models in China, "factory-installed".

On February 18, 2008, Dell announced that the Inspiron 1525 would have Ubuntu as an optional operating system.

Dell previously had its headquarters in the Arboretum complex in northern Austin, Texas.

In 1989 Dell occupied 127, 000 square feet in the Arboretum complex.

In 1993, Dell submitted a document to Round Rock officials, titled "Dell Computer Corporate Headquarters, Round Rock, Texas, May 1993 Schematic Design.

In 1994, Dell announced that it was moving most of its employees out of the Arboretum, but that it was going to continue to occupy the top floor of the Arboretum and that the company's official headquarters address would continue to be the Arboretum.

Less than one month prior to August 29, 1994, Dell moved 1, 100 customer support and telephone sales employees to Round Rock.

In 1998 Dell announced that it was going to add two buildings to its Round Rock complex, adding 1, 600, 000 square feet of office space to the complex.

In 2000, Dell announced that it would lease 80, 000 square feet of space in the Las Cimas office complex in unincorporated Travis County, Texas, between Austin and West Lake Hills, to house the company's executive offices and corporate headquarters.

Dell had an option for 138, 000 square feet of space in Las Cimas 3.

In 2002 Dell announced that it planned to sublease its space to another tenant; the company planned to move its headquarters back to Round Rock once a tenant was secured.

From its early beginnings, Dell operated as a pioneer in the "configure to order" approach to manufacturing—delivering individual PCs configured to customer specifications.

Dell's approach has changed, as cited in the 2006 Annual Report, which states, "We are continuing to expand our use of original design manufacturing partnerships and manufacturing outsourcing relationships.

Dell assembled computers for the EMEA market at the Limerick facility in the Republic of Ireland, and once employed about 4, 500 people in that country.

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Dell began manufacturing in Limerick in 1991 and went on to become Ireland's largest exporter of goods and its second-largest company and foreign investor.

EMF2 closed in 2002, and Dell Inc has consolidated production into EMF3 (EMF1 now contains only offices).

Dell started production at EMF4 in Lodz, Poland, in late 2007.

Dell moved desktop, notebook and PowerEdge server manufacturing for the South American market from the Eldorado do Sul plant opened in 1999, to a new plant in Hortolandia, Brazil, in 2007.

Dell has regional senior vice-presidents for countries other than the United States.

Dell advertisements have appeared in several types of media including television, the Internet, magazines, catalogs, and newspapers.

In 2007, Dell switched advertising agencies in the US from BBDO to Working Mother Media.

In July 2007, Dell released new advertising created by Working Mother to support the Inspiron and XPS lines.

Also in 2007, Dell began using the slogan "Yours is here" to say that it customizes computers to fit customers' requirements.

In late 2007, Dell Inc announced that it planned to expand its program to value-added resellers, giving it the official name of "Dell Partner Direct" and a new Website.

Dell India has started Online Ecommerce website with its Dell Partner www.

Dell operates a captive analytics division which supports pricing, web analytics, and supply chain operations.

In 2008, Dell received press coverage over its claim of having the world's most secure laptops, specifically, its Latitude D630 and Latitude D830.

Dell stopped this practice in 1994, citing low profit margins on the business, exclusively distributing through a direct-sales model for the next decade.

In 2007, Dell started shipping its products to major retailers in the US , starting with Sam's Club and Wal-Mart.

On January 30, 2008, Dell announced it would shut down all 140 kiosks in the US due to expansion into retail stores.

Since some shoppers in certain markets show reluctance to purchase technological products through the phone or the Internet, Dell has looked into opening retail operations in some countries in Central Europe and Russia.

In May 2008, Dell reached an agreement with the office supply chain, Officeworks, to stock a few modified models in the Inspiron desktop and notebook range.

Dell agreed to distribute a variety of makes of both desktops and notebooks, including Studio and XPS systems in late 2008.

In Germany, Dell is selling selected smartphones and notebooks via Media Markt and Saturn, as well as some shopping websites.

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In late 2006, Dell lost its lead in the PC business to Hewlett-Packard.

IDC reported that Dell lost more server market share than any of the top four competitors in that arena.

On October 17, 2011, Dell discontinued reselling all EMC storage products, ending the partnership 2 years early.

Later Dell would acquire and merge with EMC in the largest tech merger to date.

Dell was the first company to publicly state a timeline for the elimination of toxic polyvinyl chloride and brominated flame retardants (BFRs), which it planned to phase out by the end of 2009.

Dell has launched its first products completely free of PVC and BFRs with the G-Series monitors in 2009.

Dell became the first company in the information technology industry to establish a product-recycling goal and completed the implementation of its global consumer recycling-program in 2006.

On July 19, 2007, Dell announced that it had exceeded targets in working to achieve a multi-year goal of recovering 275 million pounds of computer equipment by 2009.

Dell reported the recovery of 78 million pounds of IT equipment from customers in 2006, a 93-percent increase over 2005; and 12.

On June 5, 2007, Dell set a goal of becoming the greenest technology company on Earth for the long term.

In 2006, Dell acknowledged that it had problems with customer service.

Since 2018, Dell has seen significant increase in consumer satisfaction.

In July 2009, Dell apologized after drawing the ire of the Taiwanese Consumer Protection Commission for twice refusing to honor a flood of orders against unusually low prices offered on its Taiwanese website.